Chip off the old block

At 15 years old, Joshuah Channer is captain for Wolmer’s Boys’ School under-16 cricket team and vice-captain for its under-19 team. But, his biggest cap to date is his mastery of the Caribbean Secondary Examination Certificate (CSEC) in the last academic year.

He was in his last few weeks of being 14 years old and in third form at the Heroes Circle school, when he wrote the first of six papers, for the three subjects he would sit in the examination, for children leaving secondary school.

Within 10 days, he completed the six papers, for mathematics, human and social biology, and information technology. After his first paper, he was distressed, telling his father, consultant ear, nose and throat surgeon at Kingston Public Hospital, Dr Guyan Channer, that he didn’t do well.

Both the doctor and father in him comforted his son, and urged him to prepare for the next day, when he would have to write the first paper for mathematics. It was a period of intense emotions for the youngster, who lost both his grandfathers around the examination period, and who would also have to keep up to date with class work at school.

When the results came a few months later, the younger Channer said he was reluctant to open the portal which required him to enter his name, age, date of birth, and candidate number, for he was both fearful and anxious simultaneously. When he entered the date-of-birth in the wrong format, it only increased the emotions.

When a family member challenged him to enter information, he mustered the courage, and did.

“Oh, my God. Oh my God. Oh my God,” he admitted saying more than 20 times which caused a nurse to come rushing into his father’s office, wanting to find out whether he was OK.

He was, much more than OK.

He had passed all three subjects, with distinctions (grade ones) and straight-A profiles.

He told The Gleaner how he decided on the subjects.

ACCELERATED PROGRAMME

“Wolmer’s has this accelerated programme where, for third form, they have a certain batch of third formers do CSEC mathematics early. The year before I did my exams, which would be the May 2024, I think it was 100 per cent of the students that were in the accelerated group got a grade one for the maths. So, in my mind, I’m going to do maths. And, I have a family member who teaches IT. So, that’s how I got to do IT. She said I was ready for it, and that’s how it became one of the three subjects,”explained Joshuah, who spoke with The Gleaner last week.

He would later have a discussion about HSB versus biology as the third subject. According to him, “about three quarters of the biology syllabus is HSB, and it is considered one of the easier CSEC subjects”.

Within a matter of days, it was decided. Three CSEC subjects, as he parts with third form.

He admitted to being “stretched and stressed” with a lot of extra, face-to-face and online classes, little sleep, reams of reading, laser focus, and clocking the hours.

“My maths extra class was on Sundays and Tuesdays. My IT extra class was on Sundays and my HSB studies was anytime I had spare time [to be taught by my father] – when I finished homework, and when I finished my class assignments. As for the exams, I would have to start studying from two and a half weeks before the exams started,” he told The Gleaner.

The two-week Easter break for him was “most beneficial, and critical” to his examination studies, giving him time to dedicate to his studies.

All this time, he had to keep up class work.

“I have a logical brain, so certain concepts, I study them and say this makes logical sense. So for Paper 2 for HSB, all the questions are about defining. It is, give an example of this or that. So if you didn’t read, and you don’t know the question, you will have problems…” he said.

His greatest challenge for HSB was questions about the reproductive and respiratory systems. The subject was also the most highly anticipated, as it was the first paper, marking his first time experiencing CSEC. Acknowledging that the exams were not difficult, he emphasised that they required clear thought. Mastering the art of studying, he said, one didn’t have to study everything.

“For those I sat, I read through the syllabus. Sometimes you don’t have to study using textbooks or notebooks. You can just look at the curriculum. Because once you understand exactly what they’re going to ask for, when you reach home, when you reach the library, wherever you study, instead of looking through every single note that the teacher may have given, you can do it,” he said with confidence.

Dr Channer said despite Joshuah’s misgivings, he knew he would do well and credits his offspring for keeping focussed.

“It was a lot, but he put in the work. He organised a lot of things. I still give him my support, as I said, I carried him to all his classes. And if he has online classes, even if I’m dying to sleep, I’m still with him, just giving him the support and maintaining him otherwise…” he told The Gleaner.

He often had to remind his son that he had to study, though he had concerns about the weight he was carrying.

“I had to do it. I wouldn’t say often. Some of my concerns were that he was also doing cricket, and there are times when he would miss an entire day of school. Several days of school he missed. And he had to catch up on that. So my concern was whether or not too much was being chewed. But as I told him from day one, I said ‘Look, I am going to support you 100 per cent’,” he said.

“So, for extra class I brought him, whether it’s Sunday or otherwise. I ensured that whatever tools he needed for it, it would get done. I take the time out to teach him some of the HSB and stuff like that. So whatever it was, or whatever the needs were, I ensured that I supported him along the way,” Dr Channer explained.

Staying focus

He said his son’s cricketing duties and responsibilities required him to lose as much as a day to the game to include matches, and training. He took in stride his son’s high and low emotions, but he always did well.

And with the adage of ‘a chip off the old block’ in mind, Joshuah is not only a spitting image of his father, but is in hot pursuit of his academic achievements as well.

Dr Channer entered The University of the West Indies in 1997 as the most qualified student that academic year. He recalled receiving grade two for biology, and admits to having a “that’s my son moment” when he heard Joshuah had received a grade one, with himself as the teacher.

According to Joshuah, his cricket training duties could have hindered his performance in the exams.

“I actually think that, regardless of what I had to do with cricket, I did the three CSEC subjects and I’d have still gotten the same grades. I am still very shocked,” he said.

Joshuah rests his confidence on receiving no grades below 80 per cent during the school term, and ending the year with a 91.4 average, including 14 As in addition to the three grade ones.

The teenager is considering careers in engineering, medicine, business, and law. In addition to his fourth form requirements, he has already begun studies for principles of business, principles of accounts and economics for sitting next year.

If confidence was a person it would be Joshuah Channer.

erica.virtue@gleanerjm.com